The Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile has obtained the sharpest view ever of the dusty disk around the close pair of aging stars IRAS 08544-4431. For the first time, such disks can be compared to the disks around young stars — and they look surprisingly similar. It is even possible that a disk appearing at the end of a star’s life might also create a second generation of planets.

The inset shows the VLTI reconstructed image, with the brighter central star removed. The background view shows the surroundings of this star in the constellation Vela the Sails.